When the master initiates you in a method, he observes you

 

Question 3

You have been explaining many Meditation Methods to us. However, Isn’t it true that no method can be all that powerful unless one is initiated into it?

 

 

A method becomes qualitatively different when you are initiated into it. I am talking about the methods – you can use them. Once you know the scientific background and the way, the know how, you can use it, but initiation makes it qualitatively different. If I initiate you into a particular method it will be a different thing, because many things are implied in initiation.

 

When I talk about a method and I explain it to you, you can use it on your own. The method is explained to you, but whether it will suit you or not, how it will work upon you, what type of person you are, is not discussed. It is not possible.

 

In initiation, you are more important than the technique. When the master initiates you, he observes you. He finds out what is your type, he finds out how much you have worked through in your past lives, where you are right at this moment, at what center you are functioning right now, and then he decides about the method; he chooses the method. It is an individual approach. The method is not important, you are important, you are being studied and observed and analyzed. Your past lives, your consciousness, your mind, your body, they are dissected. You are felt deeply in terms of where you are, because the journey begins from that point – the point where you are just now. Just any method will not do.

 

Then the master chooses a particular method for you, and if he feels that this particular method has to be changed for you, that minute alterations or some additions are needed, he adds, he deletes, he makes the method fit for you. And then he gives the initiation; then he gives the method to you. That is why it is insisted that whenever you are initiated in a method, you are not to talk about it. It has to be secret because it is individual. If you tell it to someone else it may not be helpful, or it may even be harmful.

 

It has to be kept secret. Unless you achieve and your master says that now you can initiate others, it should not be talked about at all – not uttered, not even to your husband or your wife or your friend. No, it is absolutely secret because it is dangerous, it is very powerful. It has been chosen and made for you. It will work for you, but it is not for any other individual in the world. Really, each individual is so unique that he needs a different method, and with a slight difference a method can become suitable for him.

 

What I am talking about – these one hundred and twelve methods – they are generalized methods. They are one hundred and twelve generalized methods, all the methods which have been used. This is a general form so that you become acquainted. You can try – if something suits you, you can go on. But this is not initiation into a method. Initiation is a personal, individual affair between the master and the disciple. It is a secret transmission. And many other things are implied in initiation. Then the master chooses a right moment when he will give the method to you, so that it goes deep into the unconscious.

 

While I am talking, your conscious mind is listening. You will forget. When I have talked about one hundred and twelve methods, you will not even be able to rename them again – the one hundred and twelve. You will forget many completely. You will be able to remember a few, and then you will be mixed up and confused. You will not know what is what.

 

The master has to choose a right moment when your unconscious is open, and then he gives you the method. Then it goes deep down into the unconscious. So many times initiation is given in sleep, not when you are conscious. Many times initiation is given to you in a deep hypnotic trance, when your conscious mind is completely asleep and your unconscious mind is open.

 

That is why surrender is so much needed in initiation. Unless you surrender initiation cannot be given, because unless you surrender your conscious mind is always alert and on guard. When you surrender, your conscious mind can then be relieved of its duty and your unconscious mind can come directly in contact with the master.

 

A right moment has to be chosen, and then you have to be prepared for initiation. It may take months to prepare you. There has to be the right food, the right sleep, and everything has to come to a tranquil point; only then can you be initiated, so initiation is a long process, an individual process. Unless someone is ready to surrender totally, initiation is not possible.

 

So I am not initiating you into these methods, I am just making you acquainted with these methods. If someone feels that some method suits him deeply and he feels that he should be initiated into that method, I can initiate him into that method. But then it is going to be a long process. Then your individuality has to be completely known. You have to become totally naked so that nothing remains hidden. And then things become very easy – because when a right method is given to a right person at a right moment, it works immediately.

 

Sometimes it happens that while initiating the disciple, the disciple becomes enlightened, just the initiation becomes the enlightenment. Then the method becomes alive – when it is given by a master privately, individually. Whatsoever I am doing now is not initiating, remember this. This is a scientific approach just to revive the one hundred and twelve methods, to make them known.

 

If someone is interested, he can be initiated. And when you are really interested you will seek initiation, because working alone on the method is a very long affair. It may take years, it may take lives, and you may not be able to sustain it for so long a period. Through initiation it becomes very easy, and then the method becomes a transmission. Then through the method the master starts working in you. Initiation is a living relationship with the master, and a long relationship, of course, goes deep. It changes you and transforms you.

 

- Osho, "Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, Vol 1, #16, Q3"